Old Home Week parade highlights

Friday

Aug 9, 2013 at 7:32 PM

People seemed to set up chairs for the Old Home Week parade extra-early this year. (See http://www.echo-pilot.com/article/20130723/blogs/130729940/-1/blogs01 for a back story on that comment.) I saw plenty being set up, starting at about 2 PM the day prior to the event. I heard from a friend today that she saw people setting them out at the beginning of the week!

Stephanie Ziebarth

People seemed to set up chairs for the Old Home Week parade extra-early this year. (See http://www.echo-pilot.com/article/20130723/blogs/130729940/-1/blogs01 for a back story on that comment.) I saw plenty being set up, starting at about 2 PM the day prior to the event. I heard from a friend today that she saw people setting them out at the beginning of the week!

So, once again, the Old Home Week parade was much anticipated and another great source of gathering with friends and family to celebrate our community.

Our neighborhood actually didn’t seem as crowded this time around for the triennial parade. So, if you’re looking for a spot next time, set up toward the end of the route.

Not being crowded worked fine for us. And enjoying a parade really has to do with what you make of it. Sure, the 2013 parade seemed dominated by fire trucks, classic cars and tractors (which are fun), more than the creative floats people often like to ooh and ahh over. But, like I said, it’s in the attitude.

We had an enthusiastic bunch of college students watching from our sidewalk. They were Joy El (www.joyelcamps.org) staff members off for the evening. They were directly connected to several of my highlights from the evening. Here is one of those highlights, along with two others:

-When the swing dancing group worked its way up our street, Sarah from our staff group hopped up and hurried over to Josh (another staff member). “Josh, there are swing dancers coming! Can we join them?!” Josh reflected for a moment and said, “Sure.” So Sarah and Josh walked into the street and began swing-dancing. Brooke and Monica followed suit, but found it difficult with two dancers taking the female part. They decided instead to wait patiently for their turn with Josh. One by one, they danced with Josh in the street, much to the amusement of onlookers. I said to more than one person that evening, “I bet seeing three pretty women vie for a chance to dance with Josh is making male onlookers seriously consider swing-dancing lessons!”

-We were all very impressed with GreencastleBaptistChurch’s part in the parade. They had a very good turnout, and they were very well-prepared. A number of them walked along the sides of the streets handing out Freeze Pops. They’d rush back to the float to restock and then get back to work, making sure to get Freeze Pops to anyone who wanted them. As I held my cherry Freeze Pop I said to my friend Brandi, “Now I just need a knife.” About 15 seconds later a young woman walked up to me with scissors. “Need any help with that?” she asked. Very impressive! (Visit http://www.greencastlebaptist.org/ to see a video they compiled of their parade experience.)

-The politicians. You know, as disillusioned as I can be about politics at times, it is nice to see politicians taking time for things like this parade. From our own Mayor Robert Eberly riding a classic car with his wife Darlene, to seeing US Rep. Bill Shuster (http://shuster.house.gov/) taking time to ride in our parade, we can be grateful. Three cheers for PA Rep. Todd Rock (http://www.reprock.com/) for beating the streets himself, handing out candy from a bucket along the entire parade route.

I hope you enjoyed the parade, and I hope you enjoy tonight’s fireworks.

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